The following Background of the Invention is intended to aid the reader in understanding the invention and is not admitted to be prior art.
In the health-care industry, diagnostic testing of body fluids is a common place activity. Employers, government agencies, sports teams and other organizations have also become increasingly involved in diagnostic testing to maintain safety in the workplace and to ensure compliance with laws, rules and regulations.
It is generally necessary to utilize devices for collecting body fluids, such as urine, and to detect the presence of a predetermined analyte (e.g. a drug and/or metabolite thereof, or an indicator of disease). Such testing devices generally require that a sample be placed in a sample container and that a technician manually insert and submerge a portion of a testing strip into the sample, and then withdraw it to read the result. With the potential for contact with the sample by the technician and its associated health and contamination risks, a sealed receptacle for preventing contact is desirable. Various means have been proposed for reducing the risk of contact as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,923, U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,804, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,879, which utilize testing devices having test strips mounted in their lids. In use, the container is inverted or tilted so that the sample can wet the strips to perform the test.
Recently, the use of testing devices by other than health care professionals has increased. Due to the fact that these tests are increasingly performed and evaluated by relatively unskilled technicians, the device should be simple to operate to ensure adequate submersion of the test strip and provide accurate results.
Therefore, a continuing need exists for testing devices that require minimum manual operation while ensuring accurate and reliable test results.